- Network: Prime Video
- Series Premiere Date: Jul 6, 2023
Critic Reviews
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Even in short, half-hour-ish bursts, the relentless archness and escalations start to chafe, but Machado is great (“I don’t wanna be a serial killer”), and there’s a winning trippy brio to it all.
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Machado is excellent as the ferocious Dolores but the show is aimless and predictable with no big twist at the end.
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While the televised take on Dolores Roach — anglicized from “Rocha” — gets a boost from Justina Machado, who brings the same warm charisma to a serial killer she did to a single mom in “One Day at a Time,” the show is too timid to embrace the extremity of its premise. Advertised as a horror comedy, “The Horror of Dolores Roach” effectively earns neither scares nor laughs.
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If only The Horror of Dolores Roach possessed enough magic to shape its mix of dark comedy and horror into something that felt wholly worthy of the commitment, instead of cooking up a show that falls short of the killer concept that it could have been.
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Even in eight, half-hour parts, the first season is stretched thin. The tone is all over the map, along with character motivations and plot logistics.
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Any Sweeney Todd retelling turns on the question of why the killer kills. The Horror of Dolores Roach never works that out, so it’s left aimlessly sliding around in its own sloppy mess.